Lisa Dorin Named Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs

For immediate release: November 6, 2012

The Williams College Museum of Art announced today the appointment of Lisa Dorin as the new deputy director for curatorial affairs. Dorin, an alumna of the Williams graduate art history program, is currently the associate curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). She will bring to Williams her curatorial expertise in new media and her passion for working with emerging artists when she takes on her new role at the museum on March 4, 2013.

“Drawing from her notable work with living artists, Lisa brings new and emerging curatorial practices to Williams,” says Christina Olsen, director of the Williams College Museum of Art. “Her knowledge and experience will be instrumental in building a new vision for the college’s museum in the 21st century.”

Dorin graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz with a bachelor’s degree in art history and studio art. She received her master’s degree from Williams in 1998. She has been associated with the Art Institute of Chicago since 2005, where she was initially hired as the assistant curator of contemporary art. Dorin has extensive experience working with new media and living artists. At the AIC, she curates the acclaimed focus exhibition series that presents emerging artists in solo shows. Recent focus projects have featured artists Monica Bonvicini, Richard Hawkins, Sharon Hayes, and William Pope.L.

During her tenure at the AIC, Dorin organized dozens of temporary exhibitions featuring notable artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Alfredo Jaar, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Danh Vo, and Kara Walker. She has written extensively, including editing Film, Video, and New Media at the Art Institute of Chicago, a publication documenting the AIC’s time-based media collection, and Richard Hawkins: Third Mind (Yale University Press, 2010). Her noteworthy essays include “Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev: Changing the World One Video at a Time” (Artes Mundi Prize Ltd, 2010); “Experiencing Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s Always After (The Glass House)” (MASS MoCA, 2010); and “From The Silk Road Into the Future” (Nafas Art Magazine, 2007).

Dorin is an active public speaker and participant in the artistic community. She has given numerous gallery talks at the AIC and has lectured extensively on contemporary art, new media, technology, and the preservation of film and video art. She has served as a visiting lecturer and critic at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Columbia College, Chicago, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois Chicago since 2006. She has served on the Art Commission Committee for Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail, has been a juror for the Dreihaus Individual Artist Award and BOLT, a highly competitive artist residency program, as well as a mentor curator for the Chicago Artists’ Coalition’s HATCH project, an incubator for contemporary artists and curators in Chicago.

Prior to working at the AIC, Dorin was an assistant curator at the Williams College Museum of Art. She curated numerous exhibitions, often in collaboration with Williams faculty members. Among these were Liza Johnson: if then maybe (2005), Michel Auder: Chronicles and Other Scenes (2004), and IDOL: A New Work by Michael Oatman (2002).

“Lisa is knowledgeable about the museum’s past and already thinking about its future,” says professor Stefanie Solum, chair of the art department and a member of the search committee. “Her engagement in the changing world of artistic practice and her smart, passionate, and open approach to curating will certainly translate into great things for Williams students and faculty, as well as for the community.”

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